Friday 15 May 2009

PhD or DBA

Doctorates come in more than one form. The two most common are the PhD and the DBA. So how do you distinguish between them ? A colleague used the following to differentiate them ...

A DBA produces a researching practitioner
whereas A PhD produces a practising researcher

The distinction rests with the default location of your next job. If you want to stick in a managerial role but are interested in researching your own setting and your own practice, then a DBA is the right choice. If you want to become a professional researcher, then the PhD is the qualification of choice. There are many good DBA programmes, mostly at accredited schools. There are many, many more PhD programmes because the degree has been around for a lot longer. In either case, you'll have to write to "doctoral standard" and be on top of the literatures that you engage with. The DBA is often broken up into sub-projects that are taken one at a time and build toward your thesis in modular fashion. This is not so true for a PhD.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting this article! I am currently doing a DBA and have been having a difficult time articulating an explanation for my director who approves all education leave requests!

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  2. I am currently doing a DBA and have been having a difficult time articulating an explanation for my director who approves all education leave requests

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope that the explanation above helps you Togel.

    Good luck with your research

    Robert

    ReplyDelete